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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Boxing at the Military Academies is Required for Military Cadets

“Expose Them to Fear and Stress”!

A recent article in the NYTimes, September 29, 2015 entitled “Despite Concussions, Boxing Is Still Required for Military Cadets” by David Philips explains that the number of brain concussions does not warrant continuing boxing as a sport for training our ‘future soldiers’.

From my experience, I have found that nothing that the army is presently doing has increased our military’s ability to win a conflict or increase the capacity of our military staff to configure a successful campaign. In fact, the recent successes of the Taliban in Afghanistan overwhelming our own soldiers as well as decimating our American-trained Afghanis has shown, once again, that we do not have an effective fighting force anywhere in the world. Our methods of training combat officers in the various elite military academies is at best antiquated, if not completely irrelevant.

Since WWII, our US military leadership has become an embarrassment to our country. It’s not the soldiers themselves who have been wanting. It is the Senior political and general staffs that have turned out to be disastrous.

What can explain the failure of our military in Korea? Excuses abound but only five years prior to that war, we had prevailed in two World Wars. Then the Vietnam War mirrored the errors of strategy, tactics and implementation that were reflected in Korea. In both cases and then subsequently to that, our military has not been able to assess what it can and cannot win [in its fullest sense].

When I was drafted for the Vietnam War, I knew from the very beginning that our political and military leaders had no idea of what they were doing and why they were there.

Similarly, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Somalia and other zones began to pop up with a regularity of senselessness that begged the basic question of who really was in charge of trying to win a war. From my extensive experience in conflict areas around the world, I knew that our leaders [civil and military] did not know the languages, cultures nor the mentality of the people with whom they were fighting against or for. Eventually, it became so absurd that we, Americans, were arming the very factions that we were supposed to defeat.

Witness the recent fiasco where our military/CIA trained a certain number of people [say100] and ended up with about six ‘moderate rebels’ who relinquished their equipment and trucks over to Al Qaeda or ISIS. Thus we have become a military of failed endeavors and wanton mockery. That is no way to run an Army. This entire imbroglio starts with a White House that has never seen combat nor understands the nature of war, let alone the science of warfare.

Since the Bush Sr administration, there has been no POTUS who has ever witnessed the ravages of war first hand. Most of our Presidents and presidential candidates have made a mockery of our draft system, demonstrating to the American public that time and time again, only the rich and entitled have avoided military service.

Witness the satirical palaver of Trump who is proud to have avoided the Vietnam Draft while I and others really did not have the chance to buy or ‘game’ our way out of it like George Bush Jr [ and his National Guard Charade]; or the sanctimonious pronouncements of a wealthy Mitt Romney who ran to Paris and proclaimed the need for a Mormon Priest to convert the French Catholics. Yet we see on the roster, men perhaps boys, who want force and wars to defeat our erstwhile enemies like ISIS or the Taliban while they scurry off to the Peace Corps and try to convince the Mexicans to come to America – as Jeb Bush and his cowardly family has done.

As our leadership resigns to bellicose talk while hiding beneath their school desks, our military leaders have refused time after time [with few exceptions, namely Gen Martin Dempsey] to deny POTUS the opportunity to fail in combat and instead to learn to win the peace. No travesty was greater than our constant bombardment of Libya in the name of democracy and transparency while the only henchman who did maintain political and economic stability was whisked away [Qaddafi].

The problem is far greater than this endless charade of military disasters. There is a cancer within our military that promotes political professionalism at the expense of true strategic and tactical capability. No longer do we have a system in place where the competent, war-tested Captains and Majors can be promoted into senior positions of responsibility because our very senior slots are taken by sycophants and staffers.

Currently, there is not a measure of what makes a good or outstanding General or Admiral. Instead we have resumes filled with all types of acronyms that for most of us mean nothing. On top of these supernumeraries, we then place Secretary of Defense, like Pannetta, Carter or even Gates who have never witnessed or experienced any sort of combat other than as a “guest of DOD”.

We need a new way to assess the needs of a modern military configured for the 21st century. This modern military must be equipped for combat in the information age.

We don’t use horses anymore but maybe our training should include something other than “boxing”. I read a recent think tank book on the future of our military and how we should utilize it. The book was like our military; a complete fiasco of thinking critically instead relying on completely false assumptions and heuristic concepts that could never be realized.

We do not need a bigger stronger military. We need a smarter more effective one with senior leaders who have been culled out for their courage to resist civilian authority; as well as the ability to demand real outcomes in military matters. That search alone is enough to induce a brain concussion. It is worth firing everyone until we get the people we need—just like General George Marshal did in preparing for two wars in WWII.

Putin Reaches Out to Obama for Meeting at the UNLet’s Accept, Shake his Hand and Act with Sincerity!

For over a year, I have borne witness to the devastating effects that Obama’s White House sanctions has had on the Russian economy. I have written countless blogs informing Putin and the Russians [who do read these blogs] that their future looks dim if nothing is done about their imploding economy. I have no greater wisdom than countless members of our Intelligence Community who have enacted these sanctions and initiated a devastating economic warfare against the ruble and Russia’s bond rating. If concession to pressure appears as victory, so let it be.

Yet I must warn those who are now gloating, that the Russians are a formidable people who can and will sustain whatever necessary pains and tribulations in order to maintain their national pride. I understand that all too well. When I was involved in the successful regime change in the Soviet Union during the Reagan/Bush Sr Administrations, I had strongly cautioned my esteemed colleagues in both the IC and WH that what we had done was to take down a political façade that had tempered the Russian soul for over half-a-century. We did not diminished or in any way defeat the strong Russian character. Before I left the Bush Sr Administration, I cautioned against smugness and complacency or any form of unintended humiliation.

In the past few years Putin, rightfully or wrongfully, attempted to recreate a faux stance where he tried to tempt the ability of our POTUS in conjunction with our IC/Military Forces, to provoke us into a position of subservience. Strategically, Putin spread his military forces over an arc of crisis that backfired against his initial desires to assert himself as a predominate actor in world affairs. Putin found himself caught in his own spider web of insufficient funds and a bankrupt economy. Whether we, Americans, consider this tactical outcome a ‘success’ is at best questionable, if not almost irrelevant to the future of our relations with Russia.

Like most leaders who have witnessed the benign wrath of an America who will not tolerate unwarranted incursions or unnecessary provocations, it is time for POTUS to accept the outreached hand and shake it. Let us not seek glory nor vengeance in the action that Putin has initiated with his gesture of peace. Let us make certain that we can continue as two formidable partners in a wide spectrum of activities including the reasonable resolution of the civil war in Syria as well as a host of other salient issues.

Let me remind my Republican colleagues that as of this week, POTUS has welcomed President Xi Jinping, Pope Francis, and curried the interest of Putin to meet POTUS at the UN. That is quite admirable in the field of US National Security interests. There are no accidents nor coincidences in world affairs.

The confluence of these three major world actors to appear at one time in the USA is a testimony to the POTUS and his Foreign Policy team. As such, it should be treated with respect for all parties concerned; as well as a pragmatic approach to all problems that may confront us and our guests.

Let me end this blog with a quote from one of my favorite Russian Novelists, Nikolai Gogol, “Dead Souls”:

The Government of Colombia and the Terrorist FARC Organization are finally Reaching a Peace Agreement after Decades of Fighting.Congratulations! Recent newspaper articles describe the imminent signing of a peace treaty that is being crafted to end the war between the terrorist group FARC and the Columbian government.

Decades ago, I had the unique opportunity to negotiate with the FARC regarding the release of an American Peace Corps hostage who was taken while he and others were trekking through the jungles of that country. I immediately assessed the situation from afar and determined that in fact a peace corps volunteer had been taken for reasons that remained both unclear to me and more importantly to FARC. FARC assumed that this young man was a CIA operative. However after some time, they conceded with my insistence that he was not ever CIA nor could ever be CIA because his education and lifestyle were completely inconsistent with that of an American operative. Once we agreed that this individual was a target of happenstance, like many other Peace Corps members, they decided after some long distance communication to release him for a price.

At first the price was quite high. I don’t remember the amount but it did not correspond to the raison d’etre for his capture. Eventually, it came to a point in our conversations where the FARC leader had to admit that they had made a mistake in taking him. What became more interesting was, as the weeks went by, I was sensing an urgency from the FARC leader to get rid of the American hostage. I recalled the O’Henry short story—“The Ransom of Red Chief”—where the captive became so obnoxious that the captors eventually released the captive.

As I gathered more HUMINT, I learned that the Peace Corps volunteer had made himself so incredibly disliked and burdensome to the FARC over a very few short days that I was able to knock down the asking price to a paltry amount. Thanks to the fact that Peace Corps hostage was a real pain in the ass. I went down to Colombia to make the necessary exchange without involving myself or the FARC in any direct communications.

The Peace Corps volunteer was released. The FARC was true to their word. And the rest of the story was inspiring, right?

Not quite!

In the middle of another hostage siege that took place in the USA involving a black American Muslim who had taken over five hundred hostages in Washington DC, [Hanafi Muslim Siege], I received a disturbing phone call from the Peace Corp member’s family. She informed me that one year after his release, he had committed suicide. I mentioned a few words of consolation and then proceeded to extract out the five hundred hostages from the hands of the Black Muslims. After the ordeal was over, I asked myself what had happened to this young Peace Corps volunteer who really was extremely helpful in facilitating his own release.

I began to realize that his suicide might have been a PTSD reaction to what had happened to him while he was in captivity. I researched the issue of hostage taking and PTSD; and I found that there was very little literature related to this phenomena in the civilian press. Yet in military literature there was an inchoate movement that was starting to study prisoner captivity in North Korea and Vietnam. As a result of this FARC hostage siege and its tragic aftermath, I recommended that the State Department personnel [those who were about to leave abroad on assignment] should take a mandatory hostage-survival preparation course. Under Secretary for Management, Lawrence Eagleburger, enforced this mandate.

In retrospect, as much damage and pain that FARC had caused Colombia, I do remember one small, incidental episode where they had inspired me to make hostage-survival a part of the Foreign Service Curriculum. Whether that program still exists, I have no idea.

I congratulate both the FARC and the Colombian government for their final approach to signing a peace treaty.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Xi Coming to America with Rice Bowl 1/2 Full!

Chinese President Xi Jinping has lost an immense amount of Foreign Reserve Currency which started at a high of $4 Trillion now down to $36 Billion. Just like Russia, China’s economy is falling apart. When a Princeling like Xi Jinping—a son of Maoist Revolutionary leaders—has to resort to both Confucius and Mao’s Childish Book of Wisdom then, President Xi Jinping is in serious trouble.

As the economy of China starts to fall apart because it is both structurally and functionally built on lies, deceptions and massive corruptions then the Yuan can not be a vehicle for financial transaction. Yet it does becomes an expression of the world’s contempt for a fast growing economy built on make-believe numbers and a fictitious narrative with the least amount of credibility that the ruling Communist party could have mustered.

China, under the leadership of Xi, is returning back to the past of torturous memories for the Chinese people when Mao, a man of little perspicacity of finances but an expansive sense of himself, created a Chinese Revolution that decimated millions of his own people. Like the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Mao devoured his own people in a fit of rage, cleverly labeled “purging the old way in order to bring the new ways.” China is poised to expand its overseas investments into massive infrastructure projects in order to attempt to replace the ersatz currency, the Yuan, with the dollar. Clearly that will not happen.

When a country as large as China cannot manage its economy without the ‘envelope factor’ i.e. graft, then all bets are off. There is nothing inherently sacrosanct about the Yuan that would allow traders and merchants to accept this worthless piece of paper as more than what it is ---monopoly money. I sound harsh but I happen to like China and what was happening when it was growing at a more realistic pace.

However, Xi came in and decided that the Chinese would convert from an export country to an internal consumption one. Yet he didn’t bother to supply a corresponding narrative that would explain such a Chinese reversion. He demonstrated an immense paucity of intellectual heft; not to mention any understanding of economic principles that have dominated the post WWII trade and finance since the Bretton Wood Conferences. Instead he has played the weakest political card, arresting potential threats to his vacuous reign.

He is repeating the mistakes that destroyed Lin Bao, the Chinese General who was killed in an airplane ‘accident’ because he refused to follow Mao’s order to control the Cultural Revolution. That very revolution that eventually created massive slaughters of innocent Chinese intellectuals and businessmen. At present, China is merely a shadow of what it should have become. It’s economy is close to complete collapse if not bankruptcy.

It’s military is extending its reach to the Spratly Islands just as I had predicted in my novel Pax Pacifica twenty some years ago. However, if Xi read the end of the book, it clearly describes how China will find it’s self caught in a spider’s web of military ineptitude bereft of skilled warriors and clear strategic vision. I still believe that China’s expansive moves will be the final wake up call for the Chinese people who will discover that the diversion of necessary funds for domestic growth has been squandered on useless overseas expansions.

Like its past three leaders, who have never been tutored in the ways of responsible leadership and strategic financial realities, President Xi Jinping is what one can honestly call, ‘a political hack.’ He is from the princeling class where he was embedded into the hierarchy of promotion without any real evidence that he knows much of anything other than his own survival within an antiquated, stilted system called, Communism.

In time, Xi will discover, as did Mao, that someone out there in the Chinese hinterland will challenge his authority and prove that he is really no more than a paper tiger. Meanwhile, Americans must watch out for the onslaught of Chinese intelligence operatives who come to this great country in the guise of being professors, students and teachers of Confucius and Chinese.

There is a Chinese Expression for President Xi Jinping;

‘zhi lu wei ma’ [pronounced: jrr loo way ma]

Meaning:

“Swear that black is white; Or, The Emperor Has No Clothes.”

President Xi Jinping: Get serious… or leave.. And allow the more talented youth of the country to take over!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Monday, September 21, 2015

Lebanon: An Incredibly Resilient Country in the Midst of a “Garbage Revolution”

Protesting corruption with #Youstink and fighting ISIS at the same time!

An American citizen and her family, including a son and daughter in their early twenties, went to see her relatives in Lebanon. She reported back an inspirational story of a multi-cultural population in the midst of major battles, where the young men are fighting ISIS only a few minutes from their homes and other young people are rallying against corruption in government.At the same time, Lebanon is blossoming. Ironic isn’t it?

A country where battles are raging only ten minutes from their doorsteps is still prospering and living a vital existence. Yet, despite this contradictory reality, there is a new type of youthful political resistance, called “The Garbage Revolution” or #YouStink. Amidst streets and souks, garbage piles up everywhere and has morphed into a symbol of political protest against corrupt leadership.

In the past, the presidency and prime minister positions were usually balanced between the Muslim and Christian factions of Lebanon’s major ethnic groups. Now the youth of the country want to change this old formula for powering sharing. They feel that their voice should be heard once and for all.

I still do not understand why the Lebanese government allows this sanitation hazard to exist. Yet I must express my admiration to country which has Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims mixed in with Druze, Christians and they all seem to live well together. The war against the barbaric ISIS has unified these different people into an effective coalition of which they are all proud to claim that they are one-- Lebanese citizens.

I have always admired the Lebanese. Even during their terrible civil wars during the 1970’s and 1980’s, their economy never dropped one penny and trade continued to flourish in all parts of the country. For those who see Hezbollah as a terrorist group, you best reconsider the fact that the Shi’ite sons and daughters of normal Lebanese families are going out to fight every day against ISIS.

For some years now, I have insisted that Sheikh Nasrallah was a brilliant leader of a group that once was considered ‘terrorists’—Hezbollah. Now it is a legitimate political/economic Lebanese faction. It’s his forces, along with Iranian soldiers, who are the major bulwark against ISIS. The Hezbollah militia fight for ten days to two weeks then come home to Lebanon to rest and then go back into the battle field.

Amidst all this fighting, Lebanon has been able to absorb the Palestinian refugees of the past and integrate the new Syrian refugees of the present and future. The Lebanese Army has become extremely effective and vigilant where once it was considered to be part of the flower power generation of youth. Overhead, the IDF flies jets to make certain that no extraneous forces intercede into the vibrant lifestyle of the Lebanese people.

I wish all my Lebanese friends a Happy New Year and send wishes for a safer, more peaceful future. As for the Israelis, I thank them for keeping the skies and ground clear so that the Lebanese can continue to throw garbage into their streets.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Russia Threatens Both Sweden and Finland if they Formally Join NATO!However, Russia’s main concern is Finland. Once again, Putin is flexing his biceps by threatening Sweden if they join NATO. This past Friday saw an event that has become all too common, with Putin acting desperately to intimidate those western European countries which may present a potential geopolitical threat to Russia. As I have posted previously, Putin and his military are provoking the Swedish military into potential conflicts by Russian overflights into Swedish territories and Russian submarines patrolling the littoral areas of Swedish sovereignty.

Putin is re-enacting the Soviet Union’s paranoia, where any near-far lands that may present potential threats have to be diplomatically co-opted before they become real strategic threats. Sweden and Finland are literally a stone’s throw away from the true heart of Russia—St. Petersburg. Finland is so close that some of you may remember that prior to the full outbreak of WWII, Russia and Finland fought a brutal war against each other where thousands of troops on both sides froze or died in their ensuing battles in their respective snow tundras. Putin has utilized these old memories of conflict to reinvigorate his new virtual Russian Federation expansion. By outright reprimanding the Swedish Ambassador this past Friday, warning him to abstain from joining NATO, Putin was really warning Finland and the USA. Sweden presents far less of a military threat than does Finland which has the advantage of military expertise and geopolitical proximity as a true threat to Russian sovereignty.

From the USA and EU perspective, both Sweden and Finland would act as effective counter-forces to a potential incursion by Russian troops into the northern sector of the EU. Please bear in mind that Putin’s extravagant gestures of bellicosity do not effectively correlate with the current Russian economy. Putin desperately directs his frenetic attention away from the more serious concern: the complete bankruptcy of the Russia economy. Neither he nor his ineffectual political cronies can control this economic sinking.A new narrative has been created by the Kremlin where they claim that the stalwart Russians are not in anyway encumbered by the failing consumer economy. Some of our leading policy thinkers agree with this complete myth. There is no doubt that when over 81 regions of Russia are bankrupt then the people have already suffered more than they should have. Putin has ensured that those who might want to complain about souring conditions in the consumer sector are silenced for quite some time.

Putin’s image of a progressive Russia has more bearing to that of Stalin-Yeltsin borscht. He wants to look and act like Stalin without the efficiency or lethality. In reality, Putin has the ineffectual traits of a wannabe Stalin with the complete incompetency of the drunken Yeltsin. Not a great combination. The more he threatens the less intimidating he becomes.

If Putin thinks that the invasion of Georgia or Ukraine was impressive, may I remind him that anyone who dealt with the powerful Soviet Union will not take his predictable gestures seriously. Putin must be reminded that Russia is a very large federation of 125 different ethnic groups located over 11 time zones. If we were able to takedown a far greater threat than Russia –that is the Soviet Union—rest assured, Putin, that you are nothing more than a fly on the bear’s ass.

If you keep on threatening those countries around you like Moldova, Nagorny--- time is not on your side; neither is China, the EU nor the USA. Putin: please remember the Swedish Russia Wars of 1595, 1788, and 1808. What did Russia really gain or lose in those wars? A few kilometers here and there.

Russians are now tired of wars and foreign intrusions which take the attention away from more important subjects. What will be the future of a rich Motherland which is sinking rapidly into poverty and oblivion as the rest of the western world keeps on growing and advancing. Putin you have managed to stultify the growth of the great Russian citizens more than any Czar in the history of Russia’s repression.

Congratulations, you bully. Watch out for your security apparatus which has been planning behind your back for the next successor.

Why not?You did that with Yeltsin, now it’s your turn to be deposed. That’s fair.

Monday, September 14, 2015

In the Circle Of Terrorism: Hamas Fights ISIS in Gaza!What an interesting paradox. Contrary to the pervasive language of ‘war on terror’, we already recognize that terror is a tactic and not an entity or body of fighting units. Yet one element of surprise that I have found in my long career in counter-terrorism, is the crucial even ironic paradox that terrorism ends up fighting terrorism. For decades, I have witnessed this unique phenomenon where one political group that used terrorist tactics in the past then becomes legitimate but then must use terror to neutralize a rival, newly formed terrorist group.

This just happened with Hamas. Remember: Hamas was created in the late 1980’s as a counterforce to the PLO and PFLP. Now Hamas must use it’s once formidable terrorist fighters and order them to ferret out the still nascent ISIS cells working in the hot bed called, “Gaza City”. Only one year ago, Israel and the world were bemoaning the very atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli citizens. Now Israel will help Hamas [usually covertly] to infiltrate those groups of malcontents who are discredited members of Hamas or the PLO and decided to join ISIS. The rationale for joining ISIS is usually quite standard—disaffection with previous terrorist groups and a newly found attraction for Salafism.

If one takes a long view of how terrorism becomes an endless circle of self-destructive killing, one can recall the origins of Israel and the Irgun Zvai Leumi. Remember how the IZL was neutralized by the pre-cursors to the IDF –Ben Gurion’s Haganah. The IDF played with and encouraged the PLO, PFLP and other terrorist groups to create ‘strategic tensions’ in the that part of the world. Eventually the PLO under Arafat became legitimate and then it had to fight it’s own break off extremist element—Hamas.

You get it!

It’s a never ending circle of guns, bullets and fear. Yet the political aspirations are eventually achieved not by violence but by outside negotiations. Then the new government, which came into power using terrorism, must await a new unpredictable eruption of violence from another groups of believers and killers. I predict that Hamas, with the quiet help of it’s Middle East neighbors, will resolve this messy situation and will enter into a new era of financial growth and success sponsored by Israel, France, Germany, and Turkey [with the silent help of Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar].

How do I know?In my experience, usually money and trade trumps all forms of unsustainable violence. Violence begets violence until money begets legitimacy. That is the circle of resolution for which we now wait…..

Let's continue the 9/11 TRUTH History Lesson w/ Barbara Honeggar's video presentation on the "Pentagon Attacks" You will need some time, break it up in sections. Its worth it.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fvJ8nFa5Qk

George Bush Jr, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi attacked their own citizens and betrayed America!

Remember a time in our recent history when POTUS decided to attack America to justify an unjustifiable war in Iraq. Americans sent their sons, daughters, husbands and wives to die for a cause concocted by cowards and criminals. Those simple two words describing a leader like George W. Bush Jr and his compatriots has lingered in the ethos of American incredulity.

Most Americans did not and could not imagine a POTUS arranging an attack against his own people. Yet, little by little, ordinary Americans begin to realize that the inconsistencies in the 9/11 narrative and physical impossibility of NYC buildings collapsing due to plane crash, are too big to ignore.

What have we learned in the last fourteen years?

▪We lost American civilian and military lives for a cause that was highly contrived and replete with lies and distortions.

▪The USG became a source of mistrust and disgust by it’s citizenry. Legislators, FBI, CIA and military officials were placed on a watch list of mistrust and most of the youth felt both alienated and angered by a government that was willing to kill its people on US soil and in foreign lands such as Iraq, Afghanistan.

▪Our military performed according to modern day standards: poorly and without honor. Every so-called victory was met with civilian disdain as our country assumed a position of an aggressive intruder.

▪Our leaders became purveyors of lies and half-truths. All three POTUSs –Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama –were directly and implicitly indicted for this 9/11 travesty.

▪The present outrage of the American public against establishment candidates is a direct result of the citizenry informing the Republic that there will be no more stand-downs and ‘false flags’ now. This outrage extends to these “faked, copy cat mass shootings” to promote so-called gun control.

▪Both the Bush and Clinton families have been “outed” as purveyors of death against Americans.

▪Hillary is not a feasible candidate due to the lies that infest the trenches of mistrust that she and her husband dug for over thirty some years, culminating in the present day crisis of ‘the private emails.’

▪The Bush Family legacy has been destroyed once and for all. Matriarch Barbara Bush declared that no more Bushs in the White House. She, like any smart and protective mother/wife, realized that her family was tainted with the innocent blood of brave warriors. Jeb shares both the arrogance and ignorance of his three other brothers. What is most interesting is to watch him twist in the wind as Trump eviscerates him and his family in public again and again.

I have realized for some time that Trump knew all too well that the George, Jeb and the rest of “chicken hawks” were clearly responsible for the 9/11 attacks against Americans. He does not have to say it yet he shows the lack of respect for the Bush family that they truly deserve. What Trump realizes is that once and for all the Bush Family will descend into the festering bowels of disgrace, betrayal and greed just like the Borgias and Medici families, caught in their own deceitful web of miscreant behavior.As for the rest of the 9/11 cabal of neo-con cowards, Steve Hadley, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Zalmay Khalizad, et. al. they have entered into the lexicon of traitors, cowards and criminals whose descendants will continue to bear the enigma of an American Judas. Even Mueller of the FBI will have to live with the stigmata that he had brought onto himself –in an otherwise distinguished patriotic career. He failed as did the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, FAA. Worst of all, were our Generals in both the Army and Air Force; who conspired to engage in this heinous act against their own country men.

On the more positive side, fourteen years have afforded America enough time to realize that even when our USG lies to us and tries to kill its own citizens, we have armed ourselves accordingly—with knowledge and bullets. No incident in American history has caused a greater run on guns and bullets among the citizenry than the 9/11 attack perpetrated by our POTUS and his entourage. If those who were involved in the 9/11 Stand Down and “false flag’ think they are free of retribution, they are sorely mistaken. I can assure those culprits of 9/11, be they American or of other nationalities, that not one of them will be free of justice and a proportionate retribution.

Time is on the side of America’s youth. Stats show that up to 75% of the population believe there is cover up or a false flag surrounding the events of 9/11. Americans have too much independence to fall for Nazi Luftwaffe General, Herman Goebbels—“Repeating the big lie over and over again.” Too many of us know the big lie when we see it.

Friday, September 11, 2015

This twitter reference to Dukakis allows me to write about my personal/professional involvement in the 1988 presidential. Not to sound too Donaldesque but I did some of my best psychological work in that race for the Presidency.

As I remember, I was called in to see James Baker III. I didn’t know why I was summoned but I had an immense amount of respect for him and his assistant Robert Zoellick.

They asked me to formulate a strategy to help George H. W. Bush Sr. ascend his ten or fifteen point loss to Mass. Governor Dukakis. Without much ado, I first asked Baker to make certain that Atwood, who had just come into the room, be asked to leave. I did not like him nor was I interested in his ‘gunshot approach’ to life and politics in general. In any case, seated next to me was another figure whom I did not know but eventually learned to respect. His name was Roger Ailes of now Fox News Fame. At the time, he was TV/media expert.

In a few hours, we started to create a strategy using Dukakis’s personal dynamics [not relevant for this discussion] to affect a change in his behavior. It worked, Dukakis literally ended up in a tank, making himself look absolutely ridiculous. We kept Dukakis busy in Mass. , and we swung Bush Sr out of the state and moved him onto other states where he was able to politic as best as he could.

It is important for me to add that the ‘old man’, like Jeb, is not a ‘natural politician’. Unlike George Bush Jr [whose campaign I was also a part of unfortunately] was more of natural. He was comfortable joking and teasing people around him. George Bush Jr had the ease of dealing with strangers [ although I had never met him] that his father and brother, Jeb, just do not possess.

It must be said of President Nixon as brilliant as he might have been, he was not a natural people-to-people type of politician. Perhaps the best candidate I have ever met was Bill Clinton. He was simply excellent at glad-handing strangers and working the vote. Bill owned the room as soon as he entered. I have already whined about his uncanny ability to appeal to the ladies.

Bill had that gift but his wife does not. Hillary is learning that no amount of training or prepping can make you ‘approachable’ and ‘engaging’ if you are not. It’s one of those personality traits with which one is endowed. From what I can see on the TV, it seems that Bernie Sanders has that type of controlled charisma that makes him both credible and approachable. If you were to tell me that an avowed Jewish Socialist from the failing state of Vermont was to become popular, I too, would have been incredulous.

I made the mistake that thinking that the affable President Gerald Ford would trump the more dower President Jimmy Carter. I was clearly wrong. Personality and charisma do not necessarily win the elections. Yet those traits do help a candidate go quite far.

As for the Present Plan B for the DNC, I can say the following about two of the potential candidates whom I have met on a cursory basis:

▪Former VP Al Gore was born and bred to be POTUS. He came from a distinguished family of sincere, honest politicians. He could win the race, if he picked the right team. He may have to face the dirty trix Bush team again but this time he is wiser. He’ll have to work out the failed marriage thing but hey, its the 21st century.

▪VP Joe Biden has a clear shot at the Presidency. There is something quite genuine and sincere about him that makes him appear approachable and credible. He has had the endurance and suffering that wizens a politician in a way that makes him act in a very responsible, effective way. He is a politician who enjoys his work and wants everyone else to share part of that enthusiasm.

In effect, I am glad that the DNC has begun to think of Plan B. Irrespective of the $120M that Hillary and Bill raised and the so-called ‘formidable team’ that they have organized in every state, the truth is far more cruel. My advice to the DNC is put your new candidate into play ASAP!It’s not too late.

And then, let the games begin!!

Let me end with the prescient words of President John F. Kennedy:“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Ironic, that the egotistical leader of a country that was created entirely by refugees (Jews, Muslims, Druze, Christians and even VietNamese Buddhists) will not open the doors to a single soul in one of the worst refugee crisis in history. No Israeli leader has shown less compassion, empathy or historical knowledge than the son of a Cornell Professor whose family was granted refugee status by America as Jews fleeing the Holocaust. No Israeli understood less about the beneficent nature of many Muslim Countries who gave many of us, Ashkenazy Jews, sanctuary during the WWII Holocaust.

Part of my family comes from Algeria, where they had lived in the African Muslim culture for hundreds of years before they were thrown out during the French/Algerian War. At that time, there were thousands of Jews who lived in Morocco under the direct protection of the Royal Family. Even when the Sephardic Jews were chased out of Morocco because the nascent state of Israel created conflict points to force the Jews to leave to Israel; King Hassan always wanted to make certain that ‘his Jewish children’ would be well taken care of in this new state. Distant cousins in Turkey came from the Ladino refugees who were protected by Turkey for over 500 years. I can go on about how different Muslim countries, even ones that are perceived as hostile to Israel, have welcomed Jews throughout centuries of wandering about this earth seeking a homeland. Only a few years ago, I remember that in Isfahan, Iran, I encountered thousands of young and old Jews praying on a Friday morning under the bridge that was called in Farsi, “The Bridge of Jews.”

In contrast, it’s interesting to note that during WWII, Ben Gurion and the Jewish Council refused to save the lives of thousands of Jews incarcerated in the Nazi death camps. Instead, they insisted that Heydrich [father was an Austrian Jew] and Eichmann send cows and not Jews to Israel. Israel’s history is not great when it comes to saving the lives of the Polish Jews who literally created that state from its inception in Warsaw, Lodz, Bialystok. However, in the tradition of true Judaism [ a la Rabbi Hillel], Begin and the others of the Likud brought into Israel-- Ethiopians, Eritreans, Russians and Vietnamese refugees.

Now we ask Israel to bring in those Syrian civilians tortured by war that was not of their making. I ask the youth of Israel to demonstrate against your presumed leader, Bibi, and demand that once again, Israel show mercy to those whom we consider our neighbors and friends.

I have been in Syria during the best and worst of times and I have never witnessed any Anti-Semitism against their own Syrian Jews. Yet I have seen Bibi attack with venom and graceless disrespect the very country that made and nurtured him and his arrogant family – The Great American Society of Christians [primarily]. Americans did not ask what you could do for them. They simply wanted to extend a hand to those in need.

Never Forget: America saved thousands of us Diaspora Jews when all others turned their back on us, even the nascent land of Israel.

The youth of Israel, who fight for it’s very existence, must show the compassion that your leader can never possess because he is too consumed with his arrogance, ignorance wrapped in layers of self-delusional paranoia. I am certain that his brother, the true hero of Entebbe, Yonatan Netanyahu who died to liberate hostages in Uganda, would have welcomed everyone in need to his homeland. That’s why he is a Jewish Hero and Bibi can never be! It’s up to you, the youth of Israel, to reclaim the future by truly understanding our past in the real diaspora.

“Treat others as you may want to be treated.. that is all you must learn in the Talmud” Rabbi Hillel.

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About Me

Dr. Steve Pieczenik is a critically acclaimed author of psycho-political thrillers and the co-creator of the New York Times best-selling "Tom Clancy's Op-Center" and "Tom Clancy's Net Force" book series. He is also one of the world's most experienced international crisis managers and hostage negotiators. His novels are based on his twenty years experience in resolving international crises for five U.S. administrations.